Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

•• · ·f 'f i NORTHERN DATEUN ~ t field, picked up the number one spot in four m otos . He rode in SRO indoor bash By Lynne Diltz Even if you're 12 years old, you age fast at speed - Mini Expert Wade Wilson totally committed at Chico's rough scrambles. the 125 and the 250 Expert classes, which can be exhausting under the procedure of running all the Exp ert races in the afternoon. Another in teresting phenomenon of the Novices running in th e morning and the Intermediates and Exper ts in the afterno on , is that when a Novice is n otified th at he has turned Intermediate after his race, he can then sign up for th e afternoon portion of the program and ride as an in termediate on the same da y . Dean Wiggin (Bu l) di d ju st th at! After winning his Open Novice race and claiming hi s trophy, h e signed up as Intermediat e an d went home with another trophy for firs t in tha t class too! Pat Richter won both m otes of the Open Expert class, but not with the usual ease. The first go , on the re-start, Richter joined Bob May (Mai) and Bob Myers (Suz) out front. By the second lap Richter was alone. Charlie Marhsall (Bul) was on th e move, passing May, who had been in third place . Myers, after riding in -se cond all the w ay threw a chai n, givin g Marshall th e break he needed but n ot in time to ca tc h up with Rich ter. Meanwhile Dick "Bugsy" Mann had been no slouch . His fou r. stroke BSA cou ld be he ard all around the track, running so smoothly it was hard to realize th e distance between him and Rich ter was closing. At the checkered flag Bugsy was ti l;h t on Marshall's tail. One m o re lap may have meant a whole new story ! . at San d Hill with an easy win in the first moto . The sec ond mo to Jim Turner (Suz) was just a little too mu ch for Ne il. Jim had an easy w in . Gary Murp hy (Hu s), who finishedsecond in the first moto , was running third but could no t ge t by Neil to take sec o nd in th e first moto, was running third but cou ld not ge t by Neil to take second fo r a possible n win overall. Gary fi ished third giving him a third overall. Jim, who finished fourth in the first moto, h ad to settle fo r a second overall. • The sec o nd Open moto wa s a slightly Rich ter go t th e -differen t story. hole-shot but crashed after tw o laps. He was not injured, but the b ike w as. Myers wh o had tak en ov er th e lead, b u t fo r reasons unknown, Myers DNFed. Now Mann was leading, bu t Richter was catching up in sp ite of his bro ke n shock, and in th e last ten sec onds of th e ra ce Richter go t far enough in front of Mann to tak e th e sec o nd moto win . Marshall had been in third th e firs t two laps, but was down two laps when his bike broke, moving Scott Briard (Bu l) into th e position. • Chico mini stars By Donna Fowler CHICO, CAL., DEC . 28 The weather man held off the rain for one more week at Cycleland Speedway. John Sudberry is in the process of changing the track 22 geometry, adding two lon g straightaways and a right band sweeper. With only two scrambles left in this ' season it's doubtful that John will have the new area opened up this ye ar , but if not, it will give the boy s (an d girls ) something to look forward to next season. The lack of rain made the existing track faster than usual. The thriller of th e day was in the Mini class. Over 20 mini-bikers lined up fo r a three row start with the Novices on the front row, Juniors on line two and Experts bringing up the rear. Jimmy Souza got off with one of his dynamite holeshots and quickly jumped into the lead. Tom Dempsey followed in quick pursuit and Bobby Thomas got clear of the pack running -a clean third. Jeff Fuller, whose second row handicap held him back through the first few turns started to move. Lap five found him in second place and p u sh ing hard to catch Souza. In lap six he missed a shi ft in the hairpin an d dro pped back a few lengths. Souza grabbed the o pportunity and "got it on ," opening up abou t a four bike lead before Jeff go t it together again and started closing the gap. Last lap, coming off the j ump for the checkered flag, Jeff was abl e to ge t a better drive out of the sweeper, beating Jimmy by about a hal f a wh eel len gth . • A gr ea t race fo r both ride rs. Results in Results Section. Cantaloupi cleans up . Richter takes Bugsy By Sallee Hilton DIXON, CAL., JAN. 4 Don Can taloupi from Stockton , alread y a star in the scrambl es Pat ,Richter. com ing on heavy in early season Open Expert racing. . . ROSEBURG, ORE., DEC. 27 Just when the Cross Country Riders think they 've had a capa· city crowd, another Satu rday night of shorttrack racing provides an upset. There was standing room only in the seats and it required 51 different ra ces to sort the trophy and money winners out of the 126 entries from as far away as Cathlamet, Washington and Stockton, California . There was some wild riding bu t n o serious inj uri es as Grants Pass rider Jeff Campbell's hotshoe hooked a tire and he and bike end oe d . As Campbell hit the track, Bob Mahr from Co rvallis, having nowhere to go, cen ter-punched him. Racing was halte d , Cam pbell ' regained h is senses and went back to a restart. Kids Mini high-point leader, Andy Bruhn , from Aloha, had his troubles as th e A Main left the _lin e. Brian Loesch laid it down in tum three, Bruhn high-sided and was promptly cracked in the helmet by the front tire of another bike. Bruhn was a long time getting up and could not return. The first Semi Pro elimination round was a disaster. Frank Word hit the track hard ; Dick Wooten and John Wincewicz bounced off a straw bale. All made it back to a restart. Jeff Campbell had his round with the tire and bikes scattered all around tum one-two. Those seven riders were sen t to the center to recoup, regroup and m ak e repairs while the second round was run. After a restart with four p ut on the second ro w , th at eliminator was co mplete d and t he first _on e was run again . All riders made one lap without in cid en t then it all fell apart. Greg Wilson spun o u t, Dick Wooten and John Wincewicz went down together in tum two and Bob Mahr literally j um ped them. motocross style. Like the pros th ey all we re, the seven participants in the Main even t needed no restarts . Lester Huey took a quick le ad and went all the way, Bill Oliver passed Gary Davis fo r a second andJeff Campbell held fourth. ••

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